


Nostalgia

by Canarii



Series: Hide and Seek [6]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-07
Updated: 2009-12-07
Packaged: 2017-10-27 01:11:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 569
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/289932
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Canarii/pseuds/Canarii





	Nostalgia

Sometimes he thinks it's nostalgia. That yearning for something so long lost that it passes grief and becomes something more twisted. Pain and want don't mix well, they make people do strange things. Even people old enough to know better. Even the Doctor.

He sees them in her eyes, her smile, the spring or the sulk in her step, the way her hair falls over her shoulders. He sees what he's lost and lets that face lie to him. But it's never quite right, he never quite finds what he's expecting in her eyes. What he's seeking in vain.

He wonders how you tell someone that they remind you of dead women.

That was the first thing he noticed, when she ran to him in the street, that girl, that Sally Sparrow. It was her face that caught his attention even more than the fact that she knew his name. She wasn't a dead ringer, the resemblence wasn't even that striking, but it was the way she held herself, her slight build, dimples and blonde hair. It was just a passing reminder of someone he hadn't seen in a long time. Someone who burned with his planet, their planet.

The second time he met her he saw a child, a girl with too much light in her eyes who wanted to see the stars. And when he looked at Sally he saw someone new, someone else with that slight frame, that blonde hair, those dimples. Someone else he couldn't save, someone who never had a chance. Just a child, his child.

He thinks it's nostalgia. He think it's that ache and that loss that let her join him. Let Sally Sparrow follow him into time and space and leave behind her life. Tried to show her and teach her like he would have with that other someone, the girl he'd lost.

But he found soon that Sally would not be tutored, would not be mentored, would not be his student, his protege or that lost child. She would learn, Sally loved to learn, clever girl that she was, but she would not be taught. Too stubborn, too confident in that human brain which she could only use 10% of. Yes, she was clever, clever for a human, but you'd think she'd gotten a triple first at the Academy with her...airs? But Sally didn't have airs.

Was he sulking? Maybe. Was it because it has been a long time since he'd been challenged like she tested him? Challenged him like she had?

Was that why she was here? Was that why Sally Sparrow was a few rooms away, cocooned within the honeycomb depths of his tardis?

Maybe its just nostalgia.

Maybe it's...

"Doctor?"

She's standing in the doorway, looking very small beneath the coral arches of his ship, his TARDIS. He lifts his head to face her without shifting in his chair, lanky legs still propped up unceremoniously on the console. Her blonde hair is tied back, messily tucked under a knit hat. Two mugs are balanced evenly on a small pewter tray, sixteenth century if he's not mistaken. She crosses the room soundlessly, and offers one mug to him, steam and the subtle scent of tea filling the room. She smiles softly, and it's as much of an apology as they've ever had to say to each other. He takes the tea, and he knows it's not nostalgia.


End file.
